"The European Union"

INTERNATIONAL

"The European Union"

The next President of France, elected by Parliament in 1932, will probably be M. Aristide Briand, already twelve times Prime Minister, today in his sixth consecutive year as Foreign Minister.

With at least the shadow of the Elysees falling athwart his broad, stooped shoulders M. Briand produced last week what he intends shall be his last great trump in the game of Diplomacy.

Unlike General Dawes M. Briand does not hold that an embassy is or should be "secondary"' in comparison with a chamber of commerce. He would deplore that a department of commerce should gradually outrank a state department. The trump M. Briand shook down his rumpled sleeve last week is a big red Ace of Diplomacy. But the stakes--a diplomat always plays for stakes--are Commerce.

In a word Statesman Briand last week made public and despatched to 26 Continental Governments tentative but definite proposals for a "United States of Europe,'' the project he launched informally at a League of Nations luncheon in Geneva last fall, "between a pear and a piece of cheese."

Upon mature reflection M. Briand has altered his original title "The United States of Europe" to "The European Union."

"Like The Monroe Doctrine." No Government will be asked, either now or soon, to sign up as a member of The European Union. But with French precision, M. Briand asked the Governments to comment on his embryo plan before July 15, 1930. He proposed that it be thoroughly examined and debated in Geneva next fall, as a sort of extracurricular activity of the delegates who will thus have gathered at that session of the League of Nations.

To forestall the obvious comment that he is assembling a group of states against the U. S. M. Briand formally notified the U. S. State" Department, last week, that such is not his intention, whatever his actions may lead to. Blandly Brier Briand maintained last week that "The European Union" will constitute one of those "regional understandings like the Monroe Doctrine" of which U. S. citizens so heartily approve.

Plan Facts. "The nations of Europe today must unite in order to live and prosper." declares M. Briand's plan. This is his axiom, his slogan. He proposes "a moral union of Europe" based on "a Pact of General Order, however elementary."

The apparatus of The European Union would function at Geneva, parallel with the League. Its "European Conference" would be a deliberative body similar to the League Assembly. For executive the Union would have a "political committee" resembling the League Council but with greater powers. The Union would have a president, automatically drawn in rotation from each member state.

Three reservations are attached by the French Government to its proposal: 1) the Union must be linked in harmony with the League; 2) it must never, in principle at least, be opposed to any other group; 3) the Union as a whole shall never encroach upon the rights of one of its members.

Nine fields were enumerated in which the cooperation of Europeans in the Union would be of great mutual benefit. Greatest of these, of course, is TARIFFS. Plainly, if the States of Europe ever begin to trade like those of the U. S. -- that is without the balks and checks of tariffs between States -- then Europe, which already cuts below U. S. prices, should be able so to increase her efficiency as to loom as an appalling rival in the race for world trade.

Prospects. In Berlin Vofwarts, organ of the largest German party (Social Democratic), declared "the Government could do nothing more stupid than to reject Herr Briand's proposal." Minister of Interior Dr. Josef Wirth, formerly Chancellor, promised that the Cabinet would examine the scheme "with an open mind."

In Paris the French Government tacitly admitted that action on the plan will be blocked by Italy for some time. "In violent contrast to M. Briand's peaceful proposal," said the semiofficial Journal des Debats "the most warlike harangue ever heard in time of peace during this century has just been uttered" by Mussolini.

Whereas all major New York papers gave "The European Union" from half a page to a page, the British Labor Party's Daily Herald played it down to less than half a column. Britons of all parties seemed uneasy lest a European bloc against Eng land emerge. Since Scot MacDonald is a Socialite on cordial terms with the Second (Socialist) International, he was placed in an awkward fix last week. For French, German and indeed all Socialist papers on the Continent hailed "The European Union" as a braingrandchild of the Internationale. (M. Briand. of course, is a Socialist.)

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